When Davide presented Laura with a ring box on her birthday, she balked. Doesn't he know it's not nice to give a girl a ring unless it's the ring? she thought to herself. "Then I looked over at him and saw his face, and I realized that he was about to propose," she says. "It was the happiest surprise of my life."

The engagement ring was not just any ring—it was a gift from Davide's grandmother, who asked that he one day present it to his future wife. "She looked at me and I just simply expressed my biggest wish: Do you want to spend the rest of your life with me?" he recalls. "Those were the longest three seconds of my life waiting for her reply, but she said yes."

The couple's Malibu, California wedding would be as intimate and romantic as Davide's proposal. Held at the Rancho Sol del Pacifico, the couple's ceremony offered a sweeping view of the Pacific Ocean from its mountain-top perch. "One of the first decisions that we made was that we would get married in Southern California and share the beauty of the place where we have made our home together," Laura says.

Surrounded by lush greens and grounds in bloom, the bride and groom "kept the decor natural and soft," Laura says. A dramatic arch was draped in sheer white fabric and locally-grown dahlias, statice, and amaranth, while wildflowers were tied with ribbon to white chairs.

"My husband and I wrote the entire ceremony together—with some advice from our Reverend—and it was the most special part of the entire wedding for us both," the bride says. "We wanted the ceremony to be very intimate and reflect our personal feelings, hopes, and promises for our future."

Laura sought "elegance and simplicity" when it came to her wedding dress—and she found it in layered organza gown from Watters. "My favorite element of the gown was the way all of the layers seemed to float when I walked and danced," Laura says. "And it moved beautifully in the wind during the outdoor ceremony."

"I imagined that the bouquets would look like we had just picked them from the most beautiful field of wildflowers," the bride says of her purple and white bouquet made of stock, larkspur, and snapdragons.

"We wanted everything to be simple and elegant—white linens with a classic table setting and Chivari chairs," Laura says of their reception decor. Hydrangea and geranium filled round centerpieces, while the bride and groom "tucked a wildflower into each napkin fold and placed a wedding favor at each setting."

The couple's three-tiered white wedding cake "had an accident as it was being delivered to the venue," the bride says. "When it arrived, my mom told me that it resembled a mountain of mashed potatoes." Family members rushed to the rescue, adding flowers from the bridesmaids' bouquets to cover the cake's new-found flaws.